Repentant monks are an inexplicable wonder of the world

Kalgaspory ("repentant snows", also "Repentant monks") - peculiar formations on the surface of snow and firn fields in the form of inclined needles or pyramids up to 6 meters high in the highlands of the tropics and subtropics, from afar appearing to impress crowds of kneeling monks.

"Repentant monks" are formed in conditions of high standing of the sun, air dryness and strong insolation in areas devoid of moraine cover or strewn with a rare pebble, due to the uneven thawing of firn. The thawed patches appear in the direction of the falling obliquely of the sun's rays (Kilimanjaro, Chimborazo).

Studies of this natural phenomenon are conducted by several groups of scientists in both natural and laboratory conditions, but the final mechanism for the birth of crystals of "penitent monks" and their growth has not yet been established.

The term "Penitent snow" is proposed by the artist and climber Rudolf Reshreiter, for the first time during the expedition to Chimborazo and Cotopaxi who described and portrayed this phenomenon. The inclined teeth reminded him of penitents with a bowed head and a bowed back.